1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus in which the printing members such as an ink holding member, a recording head, or a recording head integral with an ink holding member, which are exchangeable or mountable/dismountable for use with the recording apparatus, are mounted on a moving carriage. In particular, this invention relates to a construction which is effective in practice in exchanging of mounting/dismounting said printing members.
The invention is applicable at will to various types of terminals or a printer singly.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, a recording apparatus has been disclosed in which the printing members such as an ink ribbon cassette, an ink tank, and a recording head, which are exchangeable or mountable/dismountable for use with the recording apparatus, are mounted on a serially moving carriage, such that the printing members can be exchanged on a carriage within an inner area apart from the end but not at the end in a scanning direction of the carriage, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 60-255473 filed by the present applicant as an invention for enhancing the operability for the user to exchange or mount/dismount them.
On the other hand, an operation panel of a typical recording apparatus is normally laid on an outer casing of an apparatus housing, to allow the recording apparatus to be operated from the outside. This operation panel is provided with a power supply key or various operation keys for the printing members, e.g., a recovery operation key for enabling ink discharge with the suction or driving of an ink jet head in an ink jet printer as one of the recording apparatuses, wherein such keys are arranged adjacent each other to allow for the centralized processing.
It can be considered that an operation key for instructing the exchange as described in the above publication is provided on the operation panel of conventional recording apparatus, but a new problem may arise if this setting is made. For example, taking an ink jet printer as an example, the occurrence frequency of the normal on/off of power supply or the above recovery processing is relatively large, as compared with that of the exchange or mounting/dismounting of the ink jet printing members on the carriage, and therefore, there is a relatively high frequency that the operator manipulates the keys on the operation panel. In this case, because the keys are arranged closely, there was a new problem that the operation key for effecting the exchange might be manipulated by mistake in manipulating other keys.
In this way, if the exchange key for the ink jet printing members, other than necessary operations, is manipulated by mistake, the effect of the key to be operated inherently can not be obtained, and further there occurs waste of time due to wasteful movement of the carriage, or the waste of ink consumption (partial small recovery) when the carriage returns to the end, resulting in the delay of the ink jet printing, as such. Accordingly, it is important to resolve this new problem.
Also, typically, when a plurality of electrical connecting elements are attached on an electric circuit board, it is common that each connecting element is oriented in the same direction, whereby if a pressing force is passed from a switch button disposed at a location on a different plane to the elements with such a constitution, its transmission mechanism may be complicated.
On the other hand, since the ink jet printer is required to be miniaturized, there is almost no excess space left for the mechanism outside the carriage movement area. The centralization of the operation keys on the operation panel is an effective constitution from this viewpoint. However, taking into account the occurrence of the new problem as above described, it was desired to resolve the above problem, and at the same time accomplish the miniaturization of the printer.